On Wednesday night, I was among an ocean of people who had descended on Madrid’s ayuntamiento in the Plaza de Cibeles. It was part of huge nationwide protests sparked by the Ceuta fiasco against the government of Pedro Sánchez. Various reports put the crowd somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 people. In any event, the Plaza de Cibeles was full, people were flooding down Paseo del Prado, and, in the other direction, stretching to the iconic Círculo de Bellas Artes.

The atmosphere was febrile. The first outbreak of hostility came when the state broadcaster, TVE, appeared. This was – pardon the pun – a red rag to a bull. Immediately, the cry went up, ‘Traitors! Out!’ and ‘Sánchez for prison’. When Madrid’s mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, came on to the stage, the mood threatened to get even worse. The most telling point was when he used the term ‘irregular migration’. Tens of thousands of people shouted him down, crying out ‘Es una invasión!’ (It’s an invasion). The official political discourse and what ordinary people think was badly out of step.

This is the real damage that’s being caused by Sánchez – who leads the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) – remaining in office. He has overseen a collapse in trust for state media, national police and almost every facet of the Spanish state. This is a corrosive poison that could take years to extract. You can’t have a society when everyone distrusts everyone else.

The march progressed towards the Palace of the Cortes, Spain’s parliament. On arrival, you were greeted by another sea of people, stretching all the way down to Fuente de Neptuno. Here, ideas that would’ve been considered beyond the pale 10 years ago were shouted out by everyday people: ‘End the invasion! Spain is Christian, not Muslim!’ Yes, there were elements of extreme groups at the protests. But many thousands of those at the event belting out this slogan were mothers with their children and little old ladies. I saw someone who looked like a meek librarian.

Ceuta has been the story of the summer. In July, around 70,000 immigrants flooded the Spanish enclave on the north African coast. It was a stark reminder of the extent to which Spain’s borders have disintegrated under Sánchez, who has overseen record levels of illegal immigration. The temperature was already high, particularly after Sánchez granted amnesty to more than 500,000 illegal immigrants in February. Ceuta – despite the attempts by talking heads to play down the crisis – was the final straw.

For the people of Ceuta, the problem hasn’t gone away. Economically, tourism to the coastal town has collapsed. More perniciously, schools have been kept closed until later in September, while the process of organising escort groups for children is underway. Playgrounds are off-limits after being taken over by the illegal immigrants, and reports of sexual assault have risen dramatically.

It is hard to overestimate the anger much of Spain feels towards Sánchez. Despite the Ceuta crisis, he remained on holiday for the entirety of August. In one of the most self-serving interviews of all time, shortly before the most recent protests, he stated that ‘some people think I shouldn’t have a holiday’. He also rehearsed all the dead-end liberal platitudes Spaniards have come to expect, such as ‘Spain needs immigrants’, as if there is any equivalence between legal economic migrants and thousands of men storming the border. Sánchez is a man who long ago lost touch with reality.

Unsurprisingly, the Spanish people are now desperate for an election. With the left-wing partners of the governing PSOE reduced to just four to five per cent of the vote, and PSOE itself propped up only by a cadre of pensioners hoping their entitlement isn’t cut before they shuffle off this mortal coil, there is no government in the future where the right-populist Vox is not the kingmaker. It seems the public has been radicalised by reality.

Eventually, Madrid’s police resorted to tear gas to quell the anger. If only Pedro Sánchez had defended the border with as much force as he was prepared to mete out against his people.

Edward Anderson is a writer based in Spain.